Mythic Structure & Giveaway

When a mysterious curse threatens to transform everyone into shadowy demons, a magical eleven year-old girl must travel to a sunken city ruin—fighting pirates, monsters, and an undead sorcerer along the way—to find a weapon that can save her world.

Exploring the Hero's Journey

Ever wonder why it is that some stories just resonate with you, as though the hero, in undertaking his journey, has guided you through your own darkest moments? Many of us feel the same way, which is why the most popular books and films are just that: they have identified with a deeper language of symbolism that most of us can interpret and take meaning from.

       In the late 1940s, late author and mythologist Joseph Campbell studied world myths surrounding heroes. His work studying myth influenced the early work of many Hollywood storytellers, including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Campbell’s defining work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, was eventually retold in 1998 with  Christopher Vogler’s plotting structure referred to as Mythic Structure. Using the studies of myth and archetype by Carl Jung, Vogler sought to define what it is within the traditional myths that resonate within us and keep a story relevant despite being decades, centuries, or even millennia, old.

       Since then, mythic structure has been used for many novels and movies, one of which is my debut novel, Ennara and the Fallen Druid. The structure follows a basic three-part act with twelve steps interspersed throughout:

1. Heroes are introduced in the ORDINARY WORLD
2. they receive the CALL TO ADVENTURE
3. They are RELUCTANT at first or REFUSE THE CALL, but
4. are encouraged by a MENTOR to
5. CROSS THE THRESHOLD and enter the Special World, where
6. they encounter TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES.
7. They APPROACH THE IN-MOST CAVE, cross a second threshold
8. where they endure the ORDEAL
9. They take possession of their REWARD and
10. are pursued on THE ROAD BACK to the Ordinary World.
11. They cross the third threshold, experience a RESURRECTION, and are transformed by the experience.
12. They RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR, a boon or treasure to benefit the ORDINARY WORLD.

       Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces and Vogler’s Mythic Structure have influenced movies ranging from Star Wars to Titanic. Can you find stages of the hero’s journey in your favorite book or film?

Angela Myron is the author of the middle grade fantasy series Ennara, the upcoming paranormal mystery A Hair of the Dog that Bit Her, and a stack of technical manuals on everything from nonlinear editing to data encryption. She lives in Whittier, California, with her husband and their twins.

Learn about Angela Myron's stories at:
www.angelamyron.com | Facebook/AngelaMyron | Twitter @AngelaMyron | Goodreads/AngelaMyron

Want more? Buy the e-book or paperback of Ennara and the Fallen Druid now!

              

For Goddess Fish Party goers only, get 30% off the Ennara and the Fallen Druid ebook today! Just enter EnnaraJuly as the discount code before checking out. Use this link to Buy Now! (Offer expires July 8, 2013.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway